In a
recent episode of
Mad Men titled "
Lady Lazarus," Pete Campbell has an existential crisis when he sees a picture of the Earth from space, but were there color pictures of the whole Earth in October 1966? First some background...
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posted by quartzcity
on May 10, 2012 -
87 comments
Click the photo at the top of the linked page to view
The Voyagers, a rumination on the universe, love, a golden record and two small space probes.
posted by Brandon Blatcher
on Dec 26, 2011 -
4 comments
Carl Sagan famously said that
we are all made of star stuff. In his vision the basic building blocks of life were jettisoned into interstellar space by the massive explosions of stars going supernova. Now scientists from Hong Kong University
have claimed that the results of their
latest study(paywall), published in Nature, indicate that stars can create complex organic compounds on the very short timescale of weeks.
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posted by AElfwine Evenstar
on Oct 27, 2011 -
48 comments
August and September 2011 mark 34 years in
the journeys of
Voyager 1 and 2. The two scientific probes, progeny of the
Mariner program, were sent out to survey this solar system and beyond.
Voyager 2 completed the
Grand Tour in 2009 (excluding Pluto), and
Voyager 1 is getting closer to interstellar space (
previously). Both scientific probes were sent out in with
a time capsule from 1977,
golden records secured in plain view on the outside of the Voyager Spacecraft. These
greetings from earth (alt links: Coral Cache, Archive.org) were recorded in the form of 116 images,
a collection of sounds of this planet,
greetings in
55 languages (
YT),
27 songs from around the world, and
brain waves of Ann Druyan, then recently
engaged to Carl Sagan. For all that work, the
"Mix Tape of the Gods" almost didn't get sent into space because of some last-minute writing in the run-outs.
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posted by filthy light thief
on Aug 5, 2011 -
26 comments
In 1977, NASA launched the Voyager 1 & 2 spacecraft, fastening to each a phonograph album containing sounds and music of Earth. If the best calculations are to be believed, one of these records was intercepted and “remixed” sometime in 2005 by extraterrestrial intelligences on the edge of our solar system. Ladies and Gentlemen:
the Voyager Interstellar Record, Remixed by Extraterrestrials.
posted by muckster
on Nov 13, 2010 -
14 comments
Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye, sing to us (auto-tuned in a way that I actually
don't hate), in
We Are All Connected*.
*Possibly NSFW owing to sidebar video links.
Something similar was mentioned here
previously.
posted by bwg
on Oct 28, 2009 -
38 comments
A Pale Blue Dot - An Unauthorized view. Some time before he died in 1996, Carl Sagan recorded a partial audio version of his 1994 book "Pale Blue Dot". Often described as the "sequel" to Cosmos, the audio version of Pale Blue Dot is, at this moment, regrettably out of print.
This video is "episode one" of an unauthorized attempt at producing a series of videos based on Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot" audio book combined with a soundtrack and appropriate video and still images intended to recall the feel of the classic documentary series "Ascent of Man" and "Cosmos"
posted by empath
on Jul 9, 2007 -
8 comments
Life Beyond Earth and the Mind of Man. Direct Google Video link to a fruitcake-tastic half-hour film of "a symposium held at Boston University on November 20, 1972 that explores the implications of the possible existence of extraterrestrial life within the galaxy and the universe. " Well worth scrubbing through for some good moments if you don't have time to watch the whole thing.
Other cool old NASA videos on google video include
Who's Out There?, starring a cigar smoking Orson Welles squinting a lot and reading off the cue cards, and
Debrief: Apollo 8: "Happiness is bacon squares for breakfast".
posted by 6am
on May 11, 2006 -
7 comments
22 years ago, 13 hours of television changed my life. I was just 11 years old when I saw
Cosmos for the first time.
Carl Sagan's explanation of the "Billions and Billions" of stars in our universe was often heckled, but I always related to the wonder of the magnitude that he was trying to relate.
Vangelis was responsible for the soundtrack (the same folks behind the music from
Chariots of Fire and
Blade Runner), and listening to it today, I feel the stirrings of emotion that brought me running to Science at an early age.
If you're looking for a gift for a child in your life this holiday season, I suggest the
DVD Compilation. Make sure to buy it from the carlsagan.com site, as 10% of the proceeds go to the Carl Sagan Foundation.
posted by thanotopsis
on Sep 9, 2002 -
44 comments
The Universe in One Year Every year on December 31 since I was in 7th grade I think of something I saw in an episode of Carl Sagan's
Cosmos.
I found this: Imagine that the history of the universe is compressed into one year—with the Big Bang occurring in the first seconds of New Year’s Day, and all our known history occurring in the final seconds before midnight on December 31. Using this scale of time, each month would equal a little over a billion years. Dinosaurs ruled the Earth for almost two hundred million years - from December 25 to December 30 on this time line. Most of our entire written history fits into the last 10 seconds of the year. It's something to think about while watching the ball drop tonight.
posted by stevis
on Dec 31, 2001 -
28 comments
